Our condolences to Tod Swank
The new World’s Biggest Skateboard is official. The old one belonged to Tod Swank. An Australian named Grant Hicks (no relation) now holds the title. He sent in a few pics and some details you can see after the jump. And to clarify, Grant only said FU! to Tod figuratively.
New World’s Biggest Skateboard is official.
The story in Grant’s own words.
My wife bought me the Guinness Book of Records back in 2005 and I saw Todd’s board, I thought 12 foot isn’t that big so I decided to make one bigger.
It was also an opportunity to raise money for my local Surf Life Saving Club.
The deck was the easy bit, though it did take 4 people to flip it over. The hardest bit were the trucks. They are made from 3mm square section steel and ride on car ball joints, 2 per truck and able to hold up to 1 ton each. To stop the board falling over from side to side 2 gas shocks for each truck were fitted between the deck and the axles to slow the process of turning from side to side. They also limit the travel to stop wheel bite. The wheels are 15″ alloy and I needed to fit disc brakes to one set for safety reasons. The board weighs in at around 650lbs. The brakes are set up with a bike brake lever that will lock the brakes up if the handle is released. Sort of like a deadmans brake.
Approximately 2000 screws were used on the deck alone and the trucks are tied together on the bottom with a T section between them for added strength. As a bit of a novelty I fitted a stereo system with 2x300watt speakers powered by a rechargable 12volt battery for added effect at events.
Future plans are to set the record for the most amount of people to ride a skateboard. Guinness created this entry after I compared this to the most amount of people to ride a surfboard. This will take place later in the year. I will also be fitting spring coils over the shocks to take the load of around 20 people. So far I’ve put 16 kids on it.
Cheers
Grant Hicks
Grant said he didn’t have any construction photos, but there are some videos on this post.
Posted by: kilwag on July 6th, 2007
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Categories: Aussie - Kiwi, Media Watch, Skate
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Let the complaining begin for the Street Vs. Tranny debate for the worlds largest skateboard skatepark.
Yeah, we’re going to need a bowl with 20 ft transitions and 8 feet of vert. Either that or a 50 stair set.
the guy standing on the board in the third pic thought it was a largest t-shirt event
The Foundation/ Swank board might not be the biggest anymore but it was made by skaters. I think counts for something. http://www.worldsbiggestskateboard.com/
Hey Chris, I’m 45 years old and have been skating for 35 of them…
I am a skater and always will be..paid for it all myself, no company support, no donations no nothing….
And thanks to Kilwag for posting this up, it means a lot to me..
cheers Hicksy
oh my god are you serious that thing is huge